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Two high-achieving students recognized as finalists in national scholarship program

Posted: February 7, 2012 - 9:53am

For Bluffton Today

Two Beaufort County high school students have been selected as finalists in the National Achievement Scholarship Program, an academic competition established in 1964 by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation to recognize outstanding black scholars.

Bluffton High School’s Tibra Wheeler and Hilton Head Island High School’s Adrian Austin rank near the top of their high school classes in academics and leadership.

“Being named a finalist in this rigorous competition is a tremendous honor,” said Superintendent Valerie Truesdale. “It signifies that Tibra and Adrian are among the very best students in our country, and we couldn’t be prouder of their achievements.”

Wheeler has 4.876 cumulative GPA and has excelled in Advanced Placement and Honors courses steeped in math, science, English language arts and social studies as well as four years of Spanish. Beyond the classroom, she was elected by the student body this fall as the 2011 Homecoming Queen. She is a member of the National Honor Society and Interact Club, and she competes on the Varsity Girls Basketball (All-Region), Varsity Girls Cross-Country, and Varsity Girls Track (All-Region) teams. Tibra is the former school record-holder in the 400-meter dash.

Austin, also an Advanced Placement scholar, is a recipient of a prestigious Palmetto Fellows Scholarship and has been on his school’s Honor Roll or Principal’s Honor roll every quarter. He received the 2011 Academic Award for Visual Arts HL-l and a Scholastic Art and Writing Honorable Mention for Photography. Austin is a member of the National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society and Tri-M Music Honor Society. A frequent performer in area music and stage productions, Austin performed at Carnegie Hall last year with Hilton Head High’s chorus and also was the overall male finalist in a national modeling competition.

According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, black students may enter both the National Achievement Program and the National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test and meeting all other requirements for participation. Both the National Achievement and National Merit programs are conducted concurrently but operated and funded separately. A student's standing is determined independently in each program.

Black students can qualify for recognition and be honored as Scholars in both the National Merit Program and the National Achievement Program, but can receive only one monetary award from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Of the more than 160,000 students who entered the program this year, 1,600 were chosen in this year’s semi-finalist round of the National Achievement Scholarship Program and 1,300 of those students were named as finalists.